'The Proposal' Gets Lots of Love at North American Box Office

Romantic comedy "The Proposal" has led North American box office. Debuted atop the revenue chart, this Anne Fletcher-directed film rang up $33.6 million over the course of the June 19 to 21 weekend and thus became the movie that ended the reign of last two weeks' champ, "The Hangover".

This comedy movie did not only surpass industry's prediction that it will open in mid-$20-million range, but also marked the best opening ever for its leading actress, Sandra Bullock. The weekend bow for "The Proposal" nearly doubled the opening cume of Bullock's previous best, "Premonition", which debuted to $17.6 million in 2007.

"The word of mouth on this movie was incredible. First and foremost, you gotta make a great movie, which Anne Fletcher did," said Chuck Viane, president of distribution for Walt Disney Studios. He also noted, "We never expected to double the best Sandra Bullock movie ever ['Premonition']." As for its overseas opening, the flick also got off to a strong start internationally, reeling in $10 million from 1,490 locations in 10 markets.

While "The Proposal" rose to the top, "The Hangover" slid to the runner-up position. Though falling behind "Proposal", this raunchy comedy from director Todd Phillips still packed a punch. In its third week in theaters, it faced a low percentage of sales decline and raked in another $26.8 million to its total of $152.8 million.

Third place belonged to "Up". The Disney/Pixar animation drew in $23.5 million after four weeks. So far, the movie about a grumpy old man fulfilling his life-long dream of having an adventure has collected a total of $175 million. Meanwhile, newcomer "Year One" opened at fourth with $19.6 million. Though the weekend bow was in line with industry projections, Sony Pictures were surprised by the fact that 53% of the audience was over 21.

Rounding up the top five was "The Taking of Pelham 123". The subway hijacking thriller movie that teams up Denzel Washington and John Travolta fell an alarming 48.5% and thus took in only $12 million in its second week. The drop was steeper than lead actor Washington's previous thrillers.